Jujuy city

Often overlooked by tourists, the city of Jujuy (pronounced choo-chooey, with ch as in Scottish loch), may be Salta's poorer sister, but it has plenty of life and culture to make it a good starting point for the Quebrada de Humahuaca which stretches northwest from here. Properly referred to by locals by its full name, San Salvador de Jujuy, it's the capital of Jujuy province, and sits at 1260 m in a bowl of lushly wooded mountains, 100 km north of Salta. Jujuy was founded in 1593, between two rivers, the Río Grande and Chico, or Xibi Xibi, but it has sprawled south, supporting a growing population on dwindling industry. Wars and earthquakes have left the city with few colonial buildings, but there's some fine architecture around its plaza, and from the bridge over the Río Xibi Xibi, with its brightly coloured market stalls, you have wonderful views of the dramatic purple mountains, contrasting with the thick green vegetation that fills the river bed. Although more chaotic than Salta, Jujuy has some lively bars where you can hear the region's wonderful folcloremusic, and its history is worth exploring, with two fine churches, a packed archaeological museum and a fabulous market. All this makes a good introduction to the province's rich indigenous culture and a handy base for exploring a variety of landscapes within easy reach. The region's most accessible cloudforest park, Calilegua, is just 125 km east of here. A great local website with lots of information is www.huhuhuy.com.ar (in Spanish).

Getting around

The city is pleasant to walk around, and is particularly interesting around the plaza, the market opposite the bus terminal, and on the bridges. The most interesting sites are within six blocks and could comfortably be visited in a day.

Background

Jujuy has an extraordinary history. The Spanish wanted to found a city to link the chain of settlements connecting Alto Perú with Córdoba, but met extreme resistance from the indigenous peoples, who destroyed their first two attempts, in 1561 and 1575. The city was finally established in 1593, and prospered until the 18th century, but the province of Jujuy bore the brunt of fighting during the Wars of Independence: between 1810 and 1822 the Spanish launched 11 invasions down the Quebrada de Humahuaca from Bolivia. Then, in August 1812, General Belgrano, who was commander of the Republican troops, demanded an incredible sacrifice of Jujuy's people when he ordered the city to be evacuated and destroyed before the advancing Royalist army. They left, the city was razed to the ground, but the people of Jujuy survived and remain proud of their sacrifice. This event is marked on 22-23 August by festivities known as El Exodo Jujeñowith gaucho processions and military parades. As a tribute to the city for obeying his orders, Belgranodonated a flag, which is displayed in the lavish Casa de Gobierno in Plaza Belgrano.

Jujuy has experienced growing poverty in recent years, since its industries - traditionally sugar and tobacco - suffered in the economic crisis, with resulting widespread unemployment. It's one of the few Argentine cities where the population is largely indigenous, boosted in the last 20 years by considerable immigration from Bolivia. Tourism is the main growth industry in the area, as the city is slowly waking up to its huge natural asset, the extraordinary beauty on its doorstep.

Sights

In the eastern part of the city is the tranquil Plaza Belgrano, a wide square planted with tall palms and lined with orange trees, with a striking equestrian statue of Belgrano at its centre. On the south side stands the Casa de Gobierno, a cream French-style neoclassical building built in 1927. Inside, you can see the very flag that Belgrano gave the city in recognition of their great sacrifice, in a sumptuously decorated long hall with pleasing art nouveau statues representing Justice, Liberty, Peace and Progress, by the Argentine sculptor, Lola Mora.

On the west side of the plaza is the cathedral, whose neo-classical façade - built in the late 19th century to replace the original, which was built in the early 1600s and destroyed by an earthquake - contains an exquisite jewel: a gold-plated wooden pulpit, carved by indigenous tribes in the Jesuit missions. It's elegant and naïve biblical illustrations are very moving, and the delicate modelling of the dove overhead and on the angels' faces, is stunning. It's one of Argentina's finest colonial treasures. There are also several fine 18th-century paintings. On the north side of the plaza is the Cabildo, built in 1867 and now occupied by the police, with a rather dull police museum inside.

The Iglesia de San Francisco is modern but has a calm interior and contains another fine gilded colonial pulpit, with ceramic angels around it, like that at Yavi . The Iglesia de San Bárbara(1777), San Martín y Lamadrid, is similar in style to the colonial churches in the Quebrada de Humahuaca,

The Museo Arqueológico Provincial has some superb ceramics from the pre-Inca Yavi and Humahuaca cultures, and beautifully painted funerary urns, sadly, some containing the tiny bones of children. The museum may be under-funded, and poorly displayed, but it's definitely worth visiting - particularly for a fabulous 2500-year-old sculpture of a goddess giving birth, and the rather gruesomely displayed mummified infant.

If you like military portraits, you could visit the Museo Histórico Provincia,though it's pretty dry, and a whole room is dedicated to the death of General Lavalle which occurred in this house, a turning point in the civil war between Federalists and Unitarists. There are also a couple of fine Cuzco-school paintings dating from 1650.